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Wanted to stop back by here for a short time to update you on the latest. Namely, the 10 mile run I managed to bust out yesterday in preparation for the half marathon in about three short weeks.

I set a goal of trying to finish the 10 mile run yesterday in a time of 1:30:00. I figured that would get me fairly close to the goal of finishing the half marathon in 2 hours. So what time did I manage to finish in? 1:30:07. Seven f***ing seconds!

My words of advice? Don’t eat an Oriental Crispy Chicken bowl from Applebee’s before you run. And try not to burn up your energy in a water park beforehand either (we were there with our daughter and her cousins that morning). And don’t push it on a new bike the day before either. You guys probably figured all that out already though.

This week, I knew my weight wouldn’t be down. Not that I’m complaining about it at all because that was sort of my strategy for the week.

Let me explain. I finished my run a week ago and I felt absolutely wiped out. I shot for 5 miles at 7.5MPH and ended up stopping at 3.1 miles. Just didn’t have the energy. I noticed that I was starting to feel hungry so I made a beeline back to my desk to eat lunch. I’ve been feeling like I’ve been doing a good job up to this point of balancing running a calorie deficit to achieve weight loss and getting enough food in me to fuel my workouts. This time, I didn’t feel so good about my balancing act.

A big weigh-in was looming this week. After last week’s 0.6 pound increase, it was important to get momentum moving back in the right direction again.

Last week, I got several solid workouts in including a couple of sessions with the personal trainer, four days of karate, a 4 or 5 mile run and 45 minutes doing circuits on the spin bike. I paid special attention to managing my diet as I felt that food was really my Achilles heel to keeping things in check. I felt good going in but only the scale will say for sure.

So I’m thinking that maybe yesterday’s weigh-in wasn’t as bad as it seemed yesterday. I weigh in every Monday with my personal trainer, as you know, but I also weigh in on Tuesday mornings with a group of co-workers for our own little “Biggest Loser” challenge that started at the beginning of the year.

I weighed in this morning at work and the result was that I was down another pound since last week’s weigh in. That kind of flies in the face of yesterday’s result of going up 0.6 pounds. I’m not sure which is a more correct reading but it does give me the sense that maybe I’m being given a second chance, so to speak, of continuing the weight loss momentum. Diet wise, this week so far has been going well so I think as long as I keep up at this rate I should be in for a good number next week. I hope at least.

I had a nice little streak going. Emphasis on the past tense of that word in there – had. I had gone 10 straight weekly weigh-ins either losing weight or holding steady from the previous week. Alas, that streak is now over.

I weighed in today at 194.2 pounds. That’s up 0.6 pounds from last week. My body fat percentage came in at 17.5% which is down a whopping 0.9% from last week (which leads me to believe that it’s more of a fluke reading than an actual result).

I’m disappointed. Not in the result itself because I don’t think it’s terribly surprising given my activity of the last week but it’s disappointing nonetheless. The ironic thing is that I think overall I ate healthier this week than I have most weeks up to this point. I think I just ate too much of that healthy stuff.

So, I had the best of intentions Wednesday for getting in the pool and doing a few hundred meters. It just never happened (just like posting here never happened but that’s another story). Motivation escaped me. My excuse is that instead I spent my lunch shopping for my wife’s birthday gift that’s coming up in about a week and a half. Marriage points are worth more than fitness points!

My sole workout Wednesday came at karate class. We spent the better part of the class doing lunges with medicine balls and stance work so I can’t say this didn’t come without the physical demands of its own! Yesterday was another session with the personal trainer (more lunges!) and karate in the evening. Today, I finally made it back in the pool for that swim that I missed on Wednesday. I’m glad I get at least the one obligatory swim in this week but I can tell that this is going to be the greatest challenge for me of the three triathlon events.

Hey everyone! Happy Monday which means back to the grind for most of us. Many of you may or may not be hockey fans but, boy, what a game between the USA and Canada for the gold medal. The whole tournament was really good and I’m proud that Olympic tournament MVP Ryan Miller was from my alma mater, Michigan State. I’m going to miss the Olympics.

Monday morning means another weigh in for me. After three straight weeks of coming in at 195.8, I was anxious to break out of the rut and start moving back in the right direction towards my target weight of 190. I worked out judiciously and watched my diet like a hawk this week. But did it pay off?